Trust Wallet now permits trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs from a self-custody wallet, enabling users to access real-world assets directly through non-custodial tokens. The integration brings together Ondo Finance as the issuer of tokenized instruments and 1inch for liquidity aggregation and execution, with initial distribution launching on Ethereum and plans to expand to other chains later.
The Partners and Technology
Ondo Finance supplies the tokenized instruments, issued initially as ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, while 1inch optimizes liquidity and routing to reduce slippage. This technical combination is designed to ensure that the tokens representing stocks and ETFs can be traded efficiently within decentralized markets while preserving compatibility with DeFi protocols.
How the Integration Works
The integration permits users to buy and sell tokens that represent U.S. stocks and ETFs directly inside Trust Wallet, which maintains an issuer- and network-agnostic strategy to onboard additional providers and chains over time. By tokenizing economic rights over traditional assets and mapping them onto the blockchain, the system converts ownership into transferable tokens that can be held in a wallet where the user controls the private keys.
User Benefits
Self custody gives users direct control of private keys and true ownership of the tokens, while fractionalization makes expensive stocks accessible in smaller portions and opens direct interaction with DeFi services such as lending, liquidity provision and yield strategies. The combination of custody, accessibility and DeFi utility creates new investment pathways and preserves financial sovereignty for individual holders.
Limitations and Regulatory Risks
The offering excludes certain jurisdictions, notably the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, and its operation depends on KYC/AML procedures implemented by partner providers. Regulatory differences between countries remain the principal risk, as they can limit availability, impose issuer registration requirements and introduce legal uncertainty for users and platforms alike.
Decentralization, Custody and Governance
Integrating real-world assets into a self-custody wallet strengthens direct access to traditional markets without centralized intermediaries but raises important questions about legal custody, issuer governance and continued reliance on centralized providers for issuance and compliance. If these governance and legal custody issues are not resolved, the model risks introducing centralizing pressures that could undermine some decentralization benefits.
The addition of tokenized stocks and ETFs to Trust Wallet marks a significant step toward blending traditional financial markets with crypto, but widespread adoption depends on regulatory clarity and robust custody and governance frameworks to preserve the promised financial sovereignty. If those challenges are addressed, the integration could expand global access to financial assets directly from personal wallets.
